Paul Roos were the top performers on day one of the Grey PE festival on Saturday.

The Stellenbosch school rallied to a 38-10 victory over Westville Boys’, which was the biggest win of the day. These are good early signs from Paul Roos, who suffered an inconsistent season last year. Hosts Grey PE and Nico Malan flew the flag for the Eastern Cape as they downed SACS (32-12) and Kearsney (34-24) respectively.

Michaelhouse, Selborne, Hilton, Graeme, Die Brandwag and Queen’s were the other winners, while the Maritzburg College-Marlow and Dale-Daniel Pienaar clashes were called off because of the heavy rain.

‘The last two matches of the day had to be called off because of the heavy rain. The wet conditions also saw teams struggle to play their natural game, which was disappointing,’ Barnard told Schoolboy Derby. ‘We still saw some good matches, though, and had a crowd of about 4 000 supporters pulling through.

‘Paul Roos did very well. It was scary how efficient they were and they’ll be one of the more dangerous teams in the country this season.

‘Grey PE also performed well as they beat a strong SACS side while Nico Malan picked up a shock win over Kearsney. Nico Malan wing Selwyn Davids [who made the EP Craven Week squad in 2011] was one of the top players and should be a big contender for the SA Schools squad later this year.’

Day two will take place on Monday, with major clashes seeing Paul Roos taking on Kearsney, Grey PE facing local rivals Marlow and Selborne tackling SACS.